Seeing the World Through Orange Colored Glasses

You've probably heard the idiom -seeing the world through "rose colored glasses" - which essentially means that you think things are more pleasant than they really are. These days we are seeing things through "orange colored glasses" and things that are often mundane or boring are seen with a new level of excitement if they are seen through Harper's eyes that contain heavy orange lenses. His love of orange has gotten so extreme that anything remotely close to this hue is up for grabs. As long as its color resembles that of a pumpkin, Harper thinks he needs it because in his own words "[it] is owange and owange is my vewy favowite." Just to give you an idea of what we face on a daily basis, I am providing you a list of the most recent orange items that he shed tears over for us to buy him, steal him or take for him. Most of which he just had to shed tears for because we see no real need for them in the Brace household:

1. An orange vest that he saw a 100 year old crossing guard wear one early morning on the way to school. I didn't dare tell him that at one point early in my life I served on my elementary school safety patrol and wore one of those vests everyday to assist my fellow students cross the road to get to their respective departing transportation at the end of their school day. If I would have known what I know now I would have scarfed one of those vests and put it away in my hope chest for the orange-crazed son that I never knew I would have.
2. A roll of orange 50 foot climbing rope from REI. Oddly enough, he knew that it was a rope but he had no clue what it was used for.... nor did he care. Knowing Harper, he had probably created 1 million other uses in his mind for his anticipated orange rope - like lassoing Willow and Riley. Within 30 seconds he had also added an orange rock climbing helmet, orange carabiner and orange climbing harness to his list of must haves. I told him that he would have to scale the 40 foot climbing wall and then I would think about it. Luckily it was closed for the day - otherwise Matt may have needed to pick up a new hobby.
3. Marigolds from the nursery. I did break down and buy these because I needed flowers anyway. Plus, I thought it would be a good experience for him to begin taking care of something and watching the fruits of his labor after watering and caring for a flower. This lasted about 2 days and now I am watching the fruits of my own labor. I guess this is only the beginning because I'm sure any living thing that he begs for over the next 18 years, mom or dad will end up caring and nurturing in one way or another.
4. Any article of cloth to wear or sleep with - he has talked us into buying orange fleece pants, orange crocs, an orange baseball hat, a minimum of 10 orange t-shirts, orange socks, and an orange fleece blanket (not counting the 2 orange afghans that nanna has crocheted). If he could dress from head to toe in orange everyday of his life he would be one happy boy. It is too bad that we don't live in TN where orange clothes are as abundant as the Book of Mormon in Salt Lake. Outside of Knoxville, TN (the motherland of the TN Volunteers), orange tends to be a scarce color for the rest of the planet. I can only PLEAD with the fashion people of the world to make orange the new black.
5. Anything that Home Depot sells. He actually refers to Home Depot as his orange store. There is not a day that he wouldn't be just fine gracing the presence of this super chain. This often works out nicely for home projects and gardening. We most recently signed him up for the monthly kids building projects that they do on the first Saturday of the month. He loves it because they provided him with a free "mini me" Home Depot apron adorned with his name. For each of the projects he makes, he earns pins to display on his apron. So far, he has made a flower box (which we put his marigolds in that I have inherited) and a catamaran or ship. Too bad child labor laws are so strict- otherwise I would see if I couldn't arrange for a "send your child to work program" - especially if he could get us a decent discount on merchandise.

Even outside of his commercial interests, his teachers have come to appreciate his love of the color as well. Over the last several months every project he has come home with has varying shades of orange throughout - it doesn't matter if they are working on a St Patty's day project or an Easter project. I'm sure it works out nicely for everyone because while the rest of the class is busy choosing colors that are more appropriate for a given holiday Harper just goes with his old trusty Orange. I can't imagine Orange typically got used that often outside of Halloween prior to Harper's arrival.

So as you look around your everyday world try to notice all the orange that you see......... because those are all the items that Harper is begging us to bring home on a daily basis. Do you feel our pain??????



In case you are wondering, Harper's hair is orange. Thanks to my friend Cari who truly found an exciting home for her kid's old Halloween hair paint. A real life example of how "one man's trash can become another man's treasure"

Times they Are a Changin.....

Has it really been a month since my last post? I apologize but life in the Brace household has been going 150 mph and I nearly have whiplash from the speed of life!

Since my last post there have been a couple of big changes to report.

• First and foremost, Matt and I will be going a little more "green" and saving gas money at the same time. Starting June 30th we will begin commuting to work together. . . . to the very same building. Yes, you heard me right - we are going to be working for the same company. A couple of weeks ago Matt accepted a position with IntermountainHealthcare - my employer for the last 8 years. He will be working for the central Information Services team as a IS Security Analyst. This is going to be a great move for Matt and we are very excited. But, it will be an adjustment for us to make our commutes to work together everyday - although there is probably no better time than the current economical debacle we are in with $4.04 per gallon gas prices. Who knows maybe many blog postings will come out of our commute. First and foremost we are going to have to work on who has dibs on the radio - I like to listen to my country music stations to "rev" up my day. After all you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl. Matt always insists on listening to National Public Radio (NPR). Although it is very newsworthy and has intriguing stories, I often feel like I'm starting my day with an 80 year old man. I don't know why but it just has that feeling. Maybe we ran rock, paper, scissors to see who gets dibs.
• Harper is teaching us to see the world through a three year old's eyes. It is funny to see how his little mind processes information. For example the other day, I told him that I needed to clip his toenails because he had a jagged toenail. His mind interrupted that statement as him having "dragon toenails". He was so excited and kept looking at his toes wanting to know which one had a dragon toenail.
  
• His most recent phase is getting in trouble at school for saying "potty words". He told on himself the other night and said he had to sit in timeout for saying a potty word. In my most calm but nervous voice I said what "potty" word did you say. I was anticipating him to say some expletive that he might have overheard Matt or I say before we wisened up and started spelling potty words or saying them under our tongue. Instead, he said "I told Ms. Debbie that her shoes looked like poo poo". Then he started belly laughing because he was so proud of the testosterone that was spewing from his lips at that moment. Sure enough Ms. Debbie confirmed that his interpretation was exactly as she remembered it. So, we have been trying to work with him to understand that we do not say certain things that could get us sent to time out... at least in front of our teachers. After a week or so of coaching, I was disappointed that everything was going in one ear and out the other. On our commute home on Friday he was in a VERY VERY vile mood. Just down right cranky and grouchy over anything I said. I don't know what finally set him off, but he got really mad at me and said "MOM... You, you, you are a POTTY WORD". I nearly lost it because I felt like he had just called me a very bad thing and he simply said you are a "potty word". He one upped that one on Sunday and said that I was a "potty word that was flushed down the toilet." Wow- that one hit me below the belt. Luckily he hasn't figured out the "real" potty words to call me but I'm sure it is just around the corner.
  
• Collier is on the move. He has started walking everywhere in the last week or so and is a force to be reckoned with. I think once he gets the hang of his new activity we will have to install a GPS system under his skin to be able to keep track of him. We were lucky with Harper because he never liked to get too far out of our site - but Collier is a different story. It is not uncommon to turn your back for a minute and he is scaling a table, climbing on chairs or findy quirky places to hide. He is a child that is full of energy and adventure and knows no stranger. Matt took the kids to a baseball game on Saturday and Collier wanted to make sure that everyone noticed him. He got so excited that the Wendy's girl (you know Dave Thomas's gal...the official red-headed mascot" of the fast food chain) stopped and gave him eye contact along with a frosty voucher. Matt said he grinned from ear to ear and squealed with delight as if to say, thanks for stopping and talking to me lady....come back anytime. He is a real lady charmer even with the strange ones.

As you can see life is a little hectic around here but never a dull moment to be had. I will try to be better about writing more regular. I wish I could say that it has been boring and nothing too funny has happened but that is not the case. Instead, I have just let the days get away from me. Hope everyone is having a great summer.